Chris Merenda got his start in the music business in 1993 as a drummer/vocalist in New England's most well hung Ska band, Skarotum. The band found success in the Northeast playing with Ska favorites, The Toasters and Burning Spear – along with personal favorites such as Bim Skala Bim and The Pilfers.
Then in 1996 Merenda founded Chewbacca, a garage rock band comprised of only two other fellow Skarotum members, and it acted as a formative vehicle for Chris to exercise his songwriting/guitar playing/band fronting abilities. As he evolved, so did the band, and eventually it would come to be comprised of its current members and be renamed Chewy by late 1998.
Chewy went on a tear for the better part of the following five years (chewyrocks.com) producing two potent releases: the Super Spin Punch EP (1999) and the full length Chew thousand Chew (2002). Eventually the band came to a point where a hiatus was required for a brief time though. In the interim, Merenda continued maturing as a songwriter and musician as he produced two impressively diverse solo records, The Regimen in 2003 - and more recently – Hello Freedom in 2005, both featuring his expanded musicality and broadened palette influenced from concurrently touring as the drummer for "subversive acoustic traditionalists..." The Mammals during the same timeframe.
Touring with The Mammals since 2004, Merenda won the opportunity to share his unique music with audiences around the country and also had the benefit of being a band member of not only the Mammals, but of Arlo Guthrie’s backup band during the Alices Restaurant 40th anniversary Masacree Tour. He played in prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall and enjoyed opening for musical icons such as Bonnie Raitt, Los Lobos, and Nickel Creek.
As Merenda wound down the remainder of the Mammals 2007 tour schedule this summer, he looked to the future in working on new Chewy demos and a new solo record. Select Chewy and Chris Merenda shows are planned for the Fall of ’07 and Winter of ’08. The rest is yet to occur… stay close.
Thanks for rockin' out at the sticker trading extravaganza! What a fun night! You should definately bring your Vega to the Down County Social Club some thursday!
Thanks for adding me. ¶ People hear only what they want, so facts alone won't wake them; they need inspiration too. ¶ This world's evils have a common root: Bullies, liars, thieves, & murderers — whether in market, government, or elsewhere — believe we're all separate, motivated only by self-interest, by greed & fear. They want us to share that belief; they use it to justify themselves and to discourage us from uniting. They use it to shape the world's political & economic systems that perpetuate war & poverty. Their real power comes not so much from secret conspiracies as from propaganda that we all hear every day and that we hardly notice, implicit in the background assumptions of television & newspapers. ¶ But you & I have found a better purpose inside ourselves & our friends. It's in everyone, if we can just wake them; we're all one flesh & blood. Let's spread that vision, for until we do our other advances will be minor & temporary. ¶ The outcome of the ideological struggle is not yet determined, so no one can afford to be just a spectator. Join the movement, if you haven't already: get involved in whatever way feels right for you. Question authority. Keep fighting, loving, hoping, singing. Hand in hand, we may still be able to heal this world. ¶ I'm impressed with ideas of Lakoff & Waldman about *how* to spread the vision, so I'm trying to promote their ideas via comments like this one and the essay on my MySpace page. I'm not selling anything. ¶ The flag of the USA, once a symbol of democracy and freedom, has now come to stand for plutocracy, consumerism, and imperialism. Here in the USA, small flags are being sold in grocery stores, in anticipation of July 4. I bought one, because I'm considering wearing it upside down ¶ Peace, love, hope, and revolution — Eric
see spot run to lacocina on tuesday nights see dick and jane dance their toes off see chris, tor, bruce and dan play snugrass music see the snuwest most fantabliosious finely masticated music known to man see a new religiousocity previously hither too unknown in the annals of music see your inhibitions jump up and shout iiiiyyeeeee! see it, be it, be there, shut up every tuesday night
Studies are inconclusive as to whether washboard/kazoo music improves, harms or otherwise impacts your health.
Thanks for taking a chance and making space for some vaudevillian ragtime/jugband blues and hillbilly swing!
Best,
joebass, michael, parrish
hi chris! we're in durham on your mom & dad's killer wi fi. :) hope all is well in the big GB. have a good drive up and down the coast! see you sunday!
Studies are inconclusive as to whether washboard/kazoo music improves, harms or otherwise impacts your health.
Thanks for taking a chance and making space for some vaudevillian ragtime/jugband blues and hillbilly swing!
Best,
joebass, michael, parrish
